I Want to Hold Your Hand
by 23 Enigma
Summary: Operation Overdrive: A monster's attack leaves Dax and Rose uncomfortably close. Forced to spend time with each other, the two Rangers learn more about each other and themselves.


I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own "Power Rangers", "The Beatles", or anything else in this story either outright mentioned or parodied. I only say I wrote the story; that's it.

Story: takes place after "Once a Ranger" of "Operation Overdrive"

Summary: Operation Overdrive: A monster's attack leaves Dax and Rose uncomfortably close. Forced to spend time with each other, the two Rangers learn more about each other and themselves.

Pairings: Dax + Rose, very slight Will + Ronny

Rating: PG-13 / T to be safe

* * *

"Ready?" Mack shouted.

"Ready!"

"Overdrive Accelerate!" the six shouted.

"Bring it on, Rangers! You'll never defeat me!" the villain, Magnetik, gleefully responded.

Rose and Ronny ran at Magnetik. "Drive Defender!" Rose swung her blade at Magnetik's head while Ronny went for his legs.

"I don't think so!" With a wave of his hands, both Rangers were flung away, almost as if an invisible force had hit them. Magnetik laughed. "Useless! Your Ranger powers are no match for my mastery over magnetism!"

Tyzonn ran at Magnetik, but was stopped inches before he could attack. "Didn't I tell you? You can't defeat me!" Magnetik crossed his arms and Tyzonn was flung away.

"That's what you think! Drive Slammer!" Will pounded the ground with his hammer and caused a wave of earth to slam into the villain. Magnetik flew backwards.

Mack ran at the villain. "Nice one, Will! How about I get a shot now? Drive Lance!"

"Don't forget me! Drive Vortex!" Mack and Dax rushed at the villain. Magnetik growled and raised his hands high. All of a sudden, Mack was sent backwards and collided with Tyzonn, who had just managed to get back on his feet. On the other hand, Dax braced himself by pointing his Drive Vortex behind him, stopping him from being thrown backwards.

"Nice try, Blue Ranger!" Magnetik lifted an arm and Dax was flung high into the sky. "Have a nice trip!"

Dax only had a few moments to act if he wanted to not crash when he landed. He aimed his left arm down and activated his Drive Vortex. "Come on…" he muttered to himself. He tried to stabilize his fall, but he was falling far too fast. He barely managed to slow his decent so he wouldn't break his legs when he landed, but who knew where he would end up. "Ah! Watch out!" he shouted as he fell towards the ground and a not-so-lucky Rose.

"Ha ha!" Magnetik laughed. "Throw one Ranger into the air and I knock out another! What a deal!"

"Ow…" Dax groaned as his Ranger suit deactivated. "Sorry about that, Rose."

Because of the collision, Rose's suit had deactivated as well. "Next time, try to find someone else to use as a landing target."

"You're not hurt are you?" Dax asked.

She shook her head. "I'm okay. Nothing serious."

Dax let out a sigh of relief. "Come on. I'll help you up."

Magnetik laughed. "You Rangers are all so weak! Flurious will be so pleased that I was able to defeat you fools in only a matter of minutes!"

Tyzonn stood up and faced the villain. "How about I just defeat you right now and call it a day?"

"Go ahead and try, Mercurian!" Magnetik raised his arms again and started to glow. "Do you really think that an alien made of bio-organic mercury can stop me? I am the master of all metals! And this is my most powerful magnet attack! Hah!" He shot a beam of white light at Tyzonn, who just stood there defiantly.

"Drive Detector!" Tyzonn used his weapon to defend against Magnetik's attack. The energy started to become bluer and flow around Tyzonn's weapon.

"You see, the thing about being made of metal is that we tend to know how it works real well," Tyzonn replied. "So I figured out your magnetic attacks!"

"What?" Magnetik shouted in anger.

"Here's your attack back at you!" Using the Drive Detector, he reflected the shot back to Magnetik.

"No!" Magnetik raised his arms and created a magnetic force field around himself. The rebounding laser impacted the force field and Magnetik cried in anger. Magnetik managed to reflect the magnetic beam but his force field was destroyed in the process.

The magnetic attack was now heading towards Dax and Rose. And since both were not wearing their Ranger suits, the attack could very well be disastrous when it hit them.

"Rose! Get behind me!" Dax yelled as he shielded Rose from the blast. Rose closed her eyes and felt Dax's hand as she grabbed it. She then felt the magnetic attack charge through her body.

* * *

Rose expected a loud boom. Or at least an explosion that would have sent her body in some direction into the sky. But none of that happened. Rose opened her eyes and only saw Dax holding onto her, still trying to protect her from the beam.

"Another time, Rangers…" she heard Magnetik mutter.

She glanced quickly at her surroundings, but couldn't see Magnetik. The attack also appeared to not have done anything, as she felt fine and she didn't see anything destroyed. She did see a little bit of an electrical charge in the air, but everything else seemed to be in order. She sighed in relief. "Dax, I'm fine. We're okay… Looks like that attack was all a bluff."

He looked at her. "You sure? That's odd. There was supposed to be an earth-shattering 'kaboom'?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't know, but be thankful we're both okay."

Dax noticed he was still holding Rose's hand and blushed. He didn't want to make things more awkward by holding onto her longer than necessary. Dax tried to let go of Rose, but then realized he could not. He even fully opened his hand, but nevertheless their palms were still touching. "Uh… Okay…" he mumbled.

She turned to him and blushed. "Dax, I said I'm fine. I mean it. You can let go of my hand now."

He tried to pull his hand away from hers once again, but still he couldn't. It only resulted in accidentally pulling her closer to him. "Heh… I can't…"

Rose tried to let go of Dax as well. But no matter what the two of them tried, they could not pull themselves away. "What's going on? Is this because of Magnetik's attack? Did he magnetize us to each other?"

"Okay… I'll give him credit for that one since I really did not expect this…" Dax replied.

Rose looked back at the battlefield and saw the other four Rangers sans Ranger suits running to them. Magnetik was nowhere to be seen.

"Magnetik escaped before we could finish him off. But we'll get him when he comes back," Mack said. He looked at Rose and Dax and raised his eyebrows. They were both trying to walk in opposite directions but were not letting go of each other. "Did I… miss something? Why are you guys holding hands?"

"It's not what it looks like," Rose said while trying to pull her hand away from Dax's.

"Oh really?" Will asked as he smirked.

Dax blushed. "Don't start, Will."

Ronny looked at them. "So… why exactly are you two holding hands?"

Tyzonn interrupted Mack. "I've studied this part of Earth culture. I've read that it's an act of feeling happy inside and a feeling that my love I can't hide."

Will looked at Tyzonn. "What are you talking about?"

Ronny chuckled. "The Beatles. It's what he's been listening to for the past week. He believes that understanding Earth music is crucial to understanding 'Earth culture'. Believe me, it'll get worse when he starts quoting Ke$ha…"

"Why would you ever brush your teeth with a bottle of Jack?" Tyzonn asked. "And who exactly is this 'Jack'?"

"Don't answer him," Ronny said to Will. "It'll only encourage him…"

"Anyways," Rose interrupted as she waved her free arm around, trying to get their attention. "Magnetik's attack must have done something like magnetically charging our bodies and now we can't let go of each other."

Will chuckled. "Now don't you sound romantic?"

Ronny elbowed him in the stomach. "Come on. This is a serious matter! What if they're stuck like this for life?"

Dax looked terrified. "Oh man! Is that true? Could we really be stuck like this forever?"

Mack raised his hand. "Guys, calm down. Let's get back to the mansion and see what my dad or Spencer have to say about this."

They nodded. "Okay, let's go," Ronny replied.

Dax and Rose followed the other four, making sure that they kept in pace with each other as they walked.

As much as she liked Dax, being forced to hold his hand for eternity didn't sound very fascinating. If this really was going to be their predicament for more than a couple of hours, Rose was not pleased about this at all. Of course, not that she hated having to spend more time with Dax…

* * *

Rose sighed. She hated having to spend more time with Dax. Not that this was really Dax's fault.

Mr. Hartford and Spencer had failed to find a way to reverse the magnetic charge. No matter what they tried, Rose and Dax were still left attached to each other. After a while, Mr. Hartford decided that the only solution would be to find and destroy Magnetik. But the villain hadn't shown his ugly face for four days now. So Rose was permanently glued to the Blue Ranger until they could do something about it. So basically they were left holding hands until who knows when.

The two quickly found out that the magnetism's effects meant that there always needed to be some sort of skin contact between the two of them. In other words, they always had to be touching somehow. They decided that it would be easiest for them if they just had the default be them holding hands.

This made everything more difficult, more awkward, and overall more tiring. Their current situation was problematic and only growing more troublesome as the days wore on.

Eating was always done with their elbows touching so they both had their hands free, but even this method still made most meals pretty difficult. Dax was disappointed he kept spilling the contents of his meatball sandwiches onto the floor, while Rose found trying to peal oranges had suddenly become quite a task when one arm kept getting jerked in another direction. This, of course, goes without mentioning the snickering around the kitchen table when the other Rangers were present.

Then there was the problem with going to the bathroom. Rose was trying her best to block most of that from her memory. But at least she and Dax didn't really see anything… It was just that when one of them would need to use the toilet, he or she would need to bring the other along… each and every time. Bathroom time was complicated to say the least.

Even just their spare time was problematic now. Everything was done with only one hand and with someone else always attached to their side. Rose felt that this made finishing her new book, _The Rise of the West_, near impossible. Although it was just as tough for Dax, who would never be able to finish rehearsing a scene from the new movie he wanted to try out for, _You Only Live and Let Die Another Day Twice_.

On the other hand, sleeping was not as much of a problem as Rose thought it would be. Rose moved around a lot when she slept, but this didn't really bother Dax since he was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. The magnetism's effects really only forced Rose to remain attached to Dax, but she could still roll around as much as she liked. But there were still embarrassing situations… like when Rose would wake up on top of Dax's chest. Well, at least he was still asleep and never found out about that… And Rose would make sure not to tell him that either…

But Dax was trying to be as nice as possible, given the circumstances. Rose believed that he felt partially responsible for their current situation, both because he fell on top of her and because he tried to protect her from the attack. But Rose wasn't holding any of that against Dax. It's not like he wanted to be thrown into the air. And him trying to protect her was rather nice of him. Stupid. But nice nevertheless.

"Here, Rose! Have a cookie!" he said as he handed her a chocolate chip cookie. Rose smiled; he had just gone through half the box by himself. They were both sitting on the couch in the main lounge. "And I just saw that a documentary on the Easter Island civilization will be on in half an hour. Oh, and after that, another channel is showing a special on Rope Theory."

"You mean 'String Theory'," she corrected. Dax blushed a bit and nodded, smiling sheepishly. "Thanks," she said as she took the cookie with her free hand. "You know," she mumbled as she threw her chewing gum in the trash, "as bad as our situation is right now, I don't hold you responsible for any of it. So stop going out of your way to be nice to me. You're acting like I should hate you or something."

Dax sighed. "I know… but I still feel bad about all this. After all, you have to spend every minute of the day with me now, and that's not that fun."

Rose ate her cookie and smiled. "It's manageable. Besides, better you than Will or Tyzonn."

"Why?" Dax asked.

"Ty would be asking me questions nonstop about every aspect of my life and Will would just be joking all day at how we'd be romantically holding hands for hours."

Dax smiled. He liked that she could still joke around despite their current situation.

"So you haven't hated spending every minute of the day with me?" he asked.

She smiled. "Considering the circumstances, I've enjoyed the company."

Then Rose heard people mumbling in the back. She turned and saw the other Rangers quietly arguing amongst themselves. They then did Rock-Paper-Scissors, resulting in Ronny losing to Mack and Will. This didn't include Tyzonn, who made some sort of a Vulcan salute instead of any of the standard hand signs. Tyzonn responded by saying something about "lizards" and "Spock"; Will slapped him upside the head for that while Mack laughed. Ronny groaned in frustration and walked over to Rose and Dax.

Dax turned to look at Ronny as she approached them. "Uh… hi."

Ronny cleared her throat. "Okay, guys. We didn't want to say anything and we know that you don't want to hear this and all but someone needed to say it but I don't see why it had to be me since Will was the one who brought it up and Mack suggested that we needed to tell you and Tyzonn should be forced to do this since broke the rules of Rock-Paper-Scissors and therefore he lost by default…"

Rose waved her hand. "Alright! Alright! Get to the point, Ronny!"

Ronny looked down at the floor. "Bath," she muttered.

Dax scratched his head. "Did you say 'bat'? Like 'Batman' 'bat' or 'baseball' 'bat'? Both are pretty cool, though I would have to give the edge to Gotham's Dark Knight."

Rose shook her head. "She said 'Bath'. Like the city in England. Why? Did we find another jewel of the Corona Aurora there? Or is that where you've spotted Magnetik?"

Ronny sighed. "No… I mean 'bath' as in 'bath'… like… water and soap and showering and stuff…"

Dax raised his eyebrows. "I don't get what this has to do with Batman."

Ronny threw her hands into the air and grabbed her head. "No! Bath! Take a bath! You two need to take a bath!" she shouted.

She opened her eyes and saw that she had shocked her fellow Rangers a bit. She then spoke in a much calmer voice. "What I was supposed to tell you in a gentler tone was that you two need to take a bath. You haven't bathed since you've been magnetized and that was, like, four days ago. And you guys aren't getting any cleaner… so we recommend that you guys go bathe sometime in the near future. And by 'near future', I mean real soon. Like, today…"

Rose cleared her throat. "Uh… yeah… we know that we haven't really… bathed and all… but we were going to try to avoid that scenario."

"Just using the toilet is bad enough…" Dax grabbed another cookie and awkwardly spoke into the cookie box. "Besides, it's not so bad. I'm sure Magnetik will show up either today or tomorrow. And then, when Rose and I are no longer forced to touch 24/7, we can both take a bath."

"Separately," Rose added, her cheeks slightly red.

"Right," he answered quickly, aware of what he had just said. "Exactly. No need to make things more awkward than they are already. See? Problem solved." Dax smiled and ate another cookie.

Ronny placed her hand on Rose's shoulder. "Guys, I know that it'll be… awkward… but you really do need to bathe. There's no guarantee Magnetik will even show up within the week, and no offense, but we are not going to let you guys walk around the mansion without having bathed for a week. As it is, you both smell terrible. I don't think we'll be able to stand another day like this."

Rose looked down at her hand. She was holding onto Dax. She did agree with Ronny's logic, but knew that Ronny would be having just as hard of a time as she was if Ronny was in her situation. Rose sighed.

"There really is no other way?" Rose asked her.

Ronny shook her head. "Sorry."

Rose slowly turned to Dax and then sighed in defeat. "Okay. We'll go take a bath together…"

Dax choked on his cookie. "What?" he shouted.

* * *

The tub looked warm and inviting. It was big and filled with nice warm water. The water was even covered in bubbles, both to make the bath more relaxing and so that it would make being naked a bit less awkward. Rose was very stressed out at the moment, but knew that a nice bath would definitely make her feel better, that is if she didn't die from embarrassment because of taking said bath in the first place.

Then Rose glanced to her right. It was now or never, she thought. Rose cleared her throat. "So!" she said, a little too quickly and high-pitched to sound very convincing. "The bath's ready!"

"Yup," he responded, not sounding very eager.

"We should get undressed now." Rose made sure not to look at Dax when she said this.

Dax unconsciously squeezed Rose's hand. "You know, we could just use perfume and cologne and nobody would know the difference."

Rose blushed and weakly smiled. "Come on. We agreed. And it's not like I'm really anxious to do this either… I'll sit at this end; you sit at that end. We'll both look away from each other."

"And what about holding hands?" Dax asked.

"Well, it only has to be skin contact. So any parts of our body can be touching."

Dax looked shocked. Rose then realized what she said. "No! That's not what I… I mean we don't have to be holding hands, per se. After we get in, we can just lean our backs against each other."

Dax let out a sigh of relief. "Okay…" he said quietly.

Rose turned to Dax. "So are we good?" She half hoped that he would protest more and delay more having to get undressed.

Dax fiddled with his collar with his free hand. "I guess so… So I'll just look over there for now…"

Rose cleared her throat. "Yeah… and I'll… look over here…"

Rose and Dax took off their shoes and socks and had the back of their feet touch. This let them have both of their hands free. Still facing away from each other, they slowly and awkwardly slipped out of their clothes. Only when it was obvious that both weren't wearing anything any longer, they got into the bathtub. The sat down and had their backs pressed up against each other.

Rose was very conscious of feeling Dax breathing right behind her. She could feel every little breath and shake. It was weird feeling his bare back up against hers. It wasn't unpleasant, she thought, but it still made her feel weird. She tried to push the thought out of her mind and grabbed one of the bars of soap. Just pretend you're all by yourself, she thought to herself. You can handle this, she thought.

She stretched her left leg out of the water and started to wash it. She heard a shift in the water behind her and guessed that Dax was doing something similar.

"Uh…" Dax mumbled. "Are we not talking, too? Because if you don't want me to, I completely understand…"

"No, we can talk," Rose responded. She waited for him to respond, but he didn't say anything. So she decided to break the silence. "So… what did you want to talk about?"

Dax nervously laughed. "I was just wondering if we had restrictions on talking. I don't really have anything interesting to say." She could feel Dax lift his right arm and heard him begin to wash it. "I never have anything interesting to say…"

"That's not true, Dax," Rose responded.

Dax shrugged. "I guess…"

Rose wanted to get him thinking about something else. She decided to change topics as she started to wash her arms. "Well, now that I think about it, we don't really know too much about each other. Sure, we've been Rangers for a while, but I feel like I still don't know too much about the real Dax. What was your life before you became a Power Ranger? What's your family like? Stuff like that. We could talk a little bit about ourselves; might as well, seeing as we're going to be together for an undetermined amount of time."

Dax turned his head, just enough to acknowledge that he was listening. "Uh… sure. Should I go first?"

"No, that's okay. I brought up the topic. I'll start."

"Okay," Dax responded and turned back to look at the wall.

Rose let out a deep breath. "Okay. So, I'm an only child. My parents are from Mexico City, and I was born in Houston. My dad works for the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and my mom owns a small, local CD store. My dad got me interested in math and science and my mom got me interested in music and helped give me my unique tastes in fashion. When I was four, I figured out how to translate Morse code. That was the start of my parents and schools realizing my academic potential. So after a lot of testing, I skipped most of grade school and attended Harvard when I was eight. And now I work at the University of London, in the Advanced Nuclear Robotics Science Department. Uh… that's most of what I can think of at the moment…"

Rose had noticed that Dax had stopped moving. "Wow…" She could feel him slouch a bit. "I wish I had a cool story like that to tell."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked. "My life is not 'cool'. I'm sure your life story is better than mine. I had, like, no childhood at all. My life may sound interesting, but trust me, it's definitely not as fun as I made it sound. I often wish I had a more normal life and it wasn't all genius this and genius that." Rose scooped some water into her hands and splashed it over her head. She then reached for the shampoo. "Being smart doesn't necessarily mean anything 'cool', Dax."

He held out his hand so that she could see it. He then held out four fingers. "Four words: 'Advanced Nuclear Robotics Science'!"

Rose rolled her eyes. Dax continued to speak. "I wish I was as smart as you. People are always asking you about everything. Math, science, history, religion, astronomy, music, mythology, anything really. I mean, you were in college when I was only playing Super Nintendo! You are, by far, the most interesting person I have ever met."

She sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Stop it with the flattery, Dax. Anyways, tell me about yourself!" she said as she washed the shampoo into her hair. "I want to hear about you!"

Dax cleared his throat. "Okay… I was born in Chicago and I lived there until I moved to Hollywood for my oh-so-successful movie career. I'm the eldest of four siblings. I have three younger sisters. They all help out in my parents' Chinese restaurant. Oh, and my parents are from Hong Kong, by the way. They moved here about five years before I was born and they opened up their restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown. Um, I was never that great of a cook, or at least not as good as any of my sisters, so I took up acting and martial arts. In high school, I decided that I really wanted to be a famous actor or maybe even a director someday, but I never really got a lucky break, so I ended up as a stuntman… And, that's about it…"

"I'm sure that's not it," she said as she poured water over her head to wash out the shampoo. "You're selling yourself short, I bet. I mean, what kind of movies have you been in? Anything I might have heard of?"

Dax awkwardly laughed. "As an actual actor, none. The only movies I've been in were ones where I was a stuntman. I've mostly just done action scenes and fight scenes for the main actors who are 'too important' to get their hands dirty. It's really only action and kung fu films… And even then, I don't think anybody's really heard of any of them."

Rose nodded and started to wash her neck. "You may not know this, but I've actually seen quite a few kung fu movies myself." Dax chuckled. She could tell Dax didn't believe her. "No, really. My dad is really into the whole kung fu genre, so he got me hooked when I was a kid. So, come on. What's movies have you been in? _Attack of the Dragon and the Tiger_? Maybe _The Flying Blades of Kong Fu Zi_?"

"Ha! Yeah right. No, nothing that big. Smaller budget movies. Like, um… _To Kiss is to Fight_ and _Judo Chop Suey_."

"No way!" Rose shouted. "You were in those movies?"

Dax turned his head to her a bit. "You've actually heard of those films?

"Heard of them? I love them!" Rose replied.

"Oh, well I got to do all of the fight scenes for the lead actor, since he couldn't really fight."

"Get out!" Rose grabbed Dax by his right shoulder and turned him to face her. "So, you actually got to play Zhou Lie Jun, the wandering warrior?"

Dax smiled. "Yeah!"

"Boy, do I have stories to tell my dad…" Rose said.

"I was also in _Warriors of the Dragon's Tongue_, _Fire Island Battle_, _Ninja Way Today_, and _General Lin and Phoenix Feathers_!"

"No way!" She was now very aware that she was sounding like a giddy schoolgirl, but she couldn't help herself. "I've seen all of those! They were all awesome! I loved the choreography and the weapons and the costumes and the stories! I can't believe you did all of those fight scenes!"

"Yeah! But, I couldn't show my face since I was only the stuntman."

"Who cares? That's still really cool!"

Dax nervously rubbed his neck, though he was smiling. "I actually saw Quentin Tarantino on set one time and got his autograph!"

"Quentin Tarantino?" she asked, completely in disbelief. She looked straight into Dax's eyes. He blushed and then nodded. "Wow…" she whispered.

Now it was Rose who felt completely interested in someone else's life story. Dax had actually gone and worked with legendary film directors and actors. And what had she done? Written thesis papers on robotics that no one would read, let alone even understand. Normally people were astounded when they heard about Rose, but Rose couldn't help but feel really inferior to Dax. She just couldn't believe he had done as much as he had… and he was so… humble. His life sounded so much more fascinating than hers.

"I am so jealous of you right now…" she muttered. "Wow, you can probably see it all over my face, I bet…"

Dax looked at her and nodded. Then he noticed that he did just look her directly in the face. "Uh… Rose…" Dax weakly said. He awkwardly pointed at her chest and covered his face with his other hand.

Then Rose realized the awkward situation they were currently in. Not only had they both turned around so that they were now facing each other, but Rose had somehow managed to be slightly leaning into him. And she was completely oblivious to what she had done until Dax had pointed it out to her. She looked down at herself and saw that her torso was now very much above the bubble-filled water level. Enough so that Dax could see things quite clearly…

She blushed and let out a small yelp. Rose quickly turned around and sunk back into the water. "Oh my god! I can't believe I just did that! I didn't even notice anything!" she shouted to herself. She turned to Dax, this time making sure that at most he could only be able to see her back and nothing more. "What did you see?"

Dax, still covering his eyes, waved his free arm in front of him. "What? I mean… like… I didn't… like, I saw barely anything…"

"What did you see?" she repeated. She would not let him escape with such an uninformative response. She needed to know.

Dax sighed and turned around to face the wall. He looked to the ceiling, not anxious about what he was going to admit to her. "Okay… maybe… I saw… you know… something…"

Rose, still very red in the face, narrowed her eyes at him. "And what do you mean by that?"

Dax blushed. He was still trying to avoid answering her question very clearly. "Okay… Like maybe… two somethings…"

Oh god, she thought as she sunk lower into the water. She would never be able to live this down, not to mention that now it would be really awkward between them. Not that it wasn't already awkward. But now exponentially more awkward. "I want to die…" she mumbled.

Dax tried to clarify himself. "But I mean… like, I didn't really get a good look… I wasn't really staring… And I didn't … uh… you know… see anything more… like… uh… down there…"

She sunk even lower into the water. Please stop making this situation anymore awkward than it already is, she thought.

Dax fiddled with his fingers. "Uh… um… well…" He sighed. "Rose, I'm sorry."

She felt that he sounded very sincere. He continued to speak. "I don't really know how, but I'll do anything you want if it'll help me apologize to you. I'll never mention this to anyone, I swear. And even though I really didn't mean to see anything, I'm still really, really sorry. You must hate me right now…"

She sighed. "I don't hate you," she said quietly. "It wasn't your fault. It was mine." She turned her head to look forward again, facing the wall, still feeling embarrassed but even more so upset with herself.

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have…"

"No, it was just me being careless about my naked, ugly, small-breasted body…" she said.

She heard Dax awkwardly cough and shift his position in the water. "Hey, don't say that. I think your… you know… your…"

"Breasts." She could hear him flinch. At least she was enjoying making him feel uncomfortable, she thought. "It's not a difficult word to say, Dax."

"I think the less I say that word, the less awkward and guilty I'll feel…" He cleared his throat. "Anyways, what I was trying to say to make you feel better is that your… you know… look fine, okay? They're not ugly."

Rose turned her head towards him, still blushing slightly. "That doesn't mean 'not small'."

"Uh…" Dax said awkwardly as he turned his head towards her. "Okay, so they're not big, but who cares? I don't. I like your breasts just the way they are…" His face paled as he realized what he had just said. "Oh god, that sounded so wrong… You see? This is why I don't want to say that word!"

"What about Ronny?" she asked, her cheeks still a bit red.

Dax looked confused. "Uh…what about Ronny?" he repeated.

"She's bigger."

"Oh… Wow… Okay, now I'm really uncomfortable about where this topic is heading…"

"Or Miratrix? Or even Tori and Kira? They're all bigger than I am."

"Well, you're shorter than them. So that should be normal, because you're smaller in general," Dax responded, trying to sound as reasonable as possible. "Besides… big… those… are not the only things guys look for in women."

Rose sarcastically laughed. "What's the other? A cute butt?"

She heard Dax sigh. "That's not what I meant. Guys also pay attention to personalities and stuff. We're not all that shallow."

"Yeah, I hear that all the time. 'Dude, did you see the personality on that chick? It was almost bursting out of her shirt!' Because that's definitely something guys say."

"I don't see why this is such a big issue for you…"

She groaned as she glared at him. "No pun intended," he added quickly.

"You just don't understand…" Rose mumbled.

"Hey, I don't complain that Mack and Will have stronger arms than me. They're both way better at doing push-ups." She looked at him as if he were crazy. "Hey! Being able to do push-ups is a very important thing for guys. More push-ups mean more manliness!"

Rose sighed and looked back at the wall. "I guess, but this is different, Dax. I've just always felt… inferior… to other girls, okay? I just never felt like I was… pretty…"

He placed his hand on her shoulder. He must still be facing me, she thought. "Don't say that… You're very pretty, Rose."

"Then how come no one's ever said that to me?" Rose turned her head towards him.

Dax removed his hand from her shoulder but continued to speak. "I don't care if no one else has noticed it or if nobody ever told you, but you're beautiful. I mean it."

Rose turned around and faced Dax. This time, she made sure to keep only her head and neck above the water, though crossed her arms in front of her chest just in case. "Okay, if you think I'm so beautiful then why didn't you ever say something before?"

Dax coughed nervously. "Because I don't like saying those kinds of things. I mean, isn't it weird if I just said that to a girl? It's like a bad pickup line."

"I guess you're right…" Rose said as she thought about it.

"See? So if I said that to you, it'd be like I was asking you out," he said matter-of-factly.

"But you did just say that to me," she stated. "So were you asking me out?"

"Huh?" Dax blushed turned away. "What are you talking about?"

"And on that matter, if you think I'm beautiful, then how come you've never asked me out? Don't guys ask girls out if they think that the girl is beautiful?"

"Well… Uh…" Dax mumbled.

"Answer me, Dax." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't you like me?"

Dax closed his eyes and sighed. "You're… well… out of my league…"

"Out of your league?" She narrowed her eyes at him, signifying that she wanted him to explain.

Dax nervously swallowed. "Rose, no matter how interesting you may find my life to be, no one else does. Truth is, I'm still just a stuntman. That'll never be anything glamorous. You're amazing, Rose. And I'm just… not."

"Dax…" she began.

He put his hand up to silence her. "Rose, you're you. You're the legendary Rose Ortiz. The girl who practically invented the laws of… I don't know… super –advanced robotic science when she was, like, 10. I've read a _Time_ article about you once, about how much potential you have. As I said, you are, by far, the most interesting person I have ever met. I'm just a nobody compared to you."

"You know that's not true, Dax," she responded. "I'm not better than you. I can't believe you'd think that."

Dax seemed to sink down into the water a bit. "Also, I thought you liked Mack."

"What? Mack?" she asked, clearly in shock. "Why'd you think that?"

"He's smart, he's funny, and he's good-looking. I thought all girls like him. Especially when compared to me…"

Rose held out her hand so that Dax could see it. She then held out four fingers. "Four things. One, I don't like Mack. Not that way, anyways. I see him as a good friend and nothing more. Two, as extraordinary as my life sounds, as I've told you, I wish that I could trade it for something much more normal. Three, you are not a nobody. Don't ever sell yourself short like that. You mean a lot to everyone, Dax. You mean a lot to me."

Dax blushed. "Uh… That was only three things. What's the fourth?"

She smiled. "Four, if we do ever survive this ordeal of being magnetically attached to each other, I'm free on Friday."

Dax raised his eyebrows. "Free on Friday for what?"

She blushed but kept her stern composure. "Free on Friday if you want to ask me out. After all, I assume that when you told me that I'm beautiful, it was a bad pickup line."

Dax's face lit up and he laughed. "Okay, then!"

"So… Friday?" she asked.

"Yeah… Friday," he responded.

"See, this bath wasn't as bad as we thought it would be." Rose smiled.

"Yeah."

"Except for accidentally flashing you," she said as she blushed slightly. "Definitely did not enjoy that."

Dax blushed as well. "About that…"

Rose silenced him. "I told you, don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll make it up to me somehow."

Dax smiled. "You can look at my chest all you want if it'll make you feel better."

Rose blushed and she turned around to face the wall. "Anyways, I'm done washing. We should get out now."

Dax chuckled. He nodded and looked over to the counter. "Uh oh," he mumbled.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

Dax placed his forehead against the brim of the bathtub in frustration. "We forgot something…"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "What? What did we forget?"

He sighed. "The towels…"

* * *

After the embarrassing towel fiasco, Dax and Rose only had to endure one more day of magnetism. When they woke up, Spencer had informed them that Mack and the other Rangers had already managed to defeat Magnetik, reversing his magnetic spell. It was a surprising way to wake up, but sure enough, Spencer was right and Dax and Rose were finally able to go the bathroom separately.

It was Friday at 1:58, and Dax was nervously pacing back and forth in the main lounge. Mack had left with his father to meet up with a friend of the family, someone named "Mr. Cranston" who was only visiting briefly. Mr. Hartford had mentioned going over Zord schematics, something Dax considered a very boring and confusing topic of conversation. But Mack actually seemed excited to go since he liked spending time with his father but also because it gave him another excuse to get out of the house. Furthermore, Ronny had to return for an important three-day race, while Will decided to accompany her so that she wouldn't get lonely. Dax did get to kid Will for getting to spend some alone time with the Yellow Ranger, but Will would only smirk as a response. Although he did high-five Dax right before he and Ronny left, much to Ronny's confusion. That really only left Spencer (who would only be seen for a few moments before going to clean somewhere else in the mansion), Tyzonn (who decided the couch in the main lounge would be the best location for him to do more research on the aural cultures of humans), and Dax. And of course, Rose. There was no way that he could forget her.

"She probably decided that this was going to be a waste of her time," Dax mumbled as he looked at his watch. "Or maybe it was Daylight Saving Time, and I'm an hour too early. Or too late. Or maybe she heard me say 'Maine's town' instead of "main lounge' and she's now looking for some city in Maine. Or maybe…"

"Stop worrying, Dax," Tyzonn interrupted. "Your actions are not only illogical, but unhealthy. You're driving yourself crazy. I suggest you listen to this 'music' with me. It's quite calming."

Dax shook his head. "I'm calm enough…"

Tyzonn looked at him. "I believe you're the opposite of calm."

"But what if I say something stupid? Or I smell bad? Or I accidentally trip and knock her over?"

Tyzonn patted Dax on the back. "You've already said billions of stupid things to her, and she still talks to you. Also, she was confined to being next to you for almost a week; I'm sure she's smelled most of your odors by now. As for the clumsiness… I've heard a Beatles song that deals with trying to help one get his feet back on the ground back when he was younger, so much younger than today. Maybe listening to it would help."

"Uh…" Dax mumbled. "What?"

"Dax! I'm ready!" Rose shouted as she rushed down the stairs. "Sorry I'm a bit late. One of the professors in London called again. He couldn't remember which of Asimov's laws dictated what. I had to set him straight or else his robot would have gone haywire."

Dax just looked at her. "Wow… You look beautiful."

Rose blushed and combed her hair back behind her ear. "That's not just a bad pickup line, right?" she joked.

He smiled. "No. You really do look beautiful?"

She smiled. "Thanks… you look pretty good too, if I do say so myself."

Just then, the CD player Tyzonn was playing around with started playing music. It shook them both back into reality. Tyzonn nervously smiled. "Sorry. I accidentally hit the 'on' button. I'll shut it off…"

Dax listened to the song that was playing. The lyrics were saying something about "Please, say to me you'll let me be your man". Dax smiled.

"That's okay, Ty. I like this Beatles song."

Rose offered her hand to Dax. Ironic that after so many days of being forced to hold her hand, there was nothing he wanted more at that moment than to do the same. He grabbed Rose's hand, and they walked out the door.

The CD player continued to sing "Now let me hold your hand, I want to hold your hand."

Tyzonn shrugged and turned to the CD player. "I guess music does have a lot of influence on humans." He grabbed the CD case and looked at it. "Now if only I can understand the cultural significance of the four humans on the cover. What do they have to do with these singing insects? I'm so confused…"


End file.
